So where are we? The homicide rate neighborhood to neighborhood is predictable in Detroit. The factors affecting homicide are: 1) % of households headed by a female 2)% below the poverty level 3)% below HS education 4)% population 15-34 5)% unemployed and 6)% of vacant structures.
These are markers of a community in distress and a broken family structure. This then is the challenge, how to rehabilitate a neighborhood. Policing will not solve the structural problem it is only a momentary fix. Policing is like swatting flies it doesn't get rid of the source of flies. A lasting solution is to fix the root cause.
if you are serious about addressing law and order in our cities (I believe that you are) and if you have been following my reporting on Detroit then I would like your input on how best to address crime in Detroit, in particular, what your thoughts are on zip code 48205 which is known as the Red Zone and which was the home to the notorious Seven Mile Bloods (SMB).
, Mitch Mondry, Sanford Melder and Kyle Richardson you are Detroiters I would be most interested in your thoughts.
I started this project with no agenda other than a desire to understand why our great cities have declined and how can we reverse this trend. I was finding the "common wisdom" on law and order very unsatisfying, this is why I have spent a month digging deep into the root causes of what ails Detroit. I now have a better understanding and a point of view on what the solutions might be. I am also coming to the belief that the solutions are generalizable to other cities with modifications to allow for individual differences.
What I am about to tackle is going to be controversial. It is meant to start a conversation and hopefully a constructive dialog.
I now believe that the ONLY way to solve inner-city crime is to rehabilitate communities.
Zip code 48205, which locals call 4820die, has all the markers of a community in distress: 51% of households are headed by women; 57% of the populations is between 15-34 years, many of whom are in gangs; poverty rate is 31%; the unemployment rate is 23%; many are barely literate; 33% of dwelling units are vacant or boarded up.
Policing will not rehabilitate a community. It might temporarily prevent some crime. It takes a village to change a neighborhood. It is a societal challenge.
We (the country) have spent trillions of dollars nation-building abroad we now need to focus on building our own communities. How do we do that? Some thought in the next post.
if you are serious about addressing law and order in our cities (I believe that you are) and if you have been following my reporting on Detroit then I would like your input on how best to address crime in Detroit, in particular, what your thoughts are on zip code 48205 which is known as the Red Zone and which was the home to the notorious Seven Mile Bloods (SMB).
, Mitch Mondry, Sanford Melder and Kyle Richardson you are Detroiters I would be most interested in your thoughts.
I started this project with no agenda other than a desire to understand why our great cities have declined and how can we reverse this trend. I was finding the "common wisdom" on law and order very unsatisfying, this is why I have spent a month digging deep into the root causes of what ails Detroit. I now have a better understanding and a point of view on what the solutions might be. I am also coming to the belief that the solutions are generalizable to other cities with modifications to allow for individual differences.
What I am about to tackle is going to be controversial. It is meant to start a conversation and hopefully a constructive dialog.
I now believe that the ONLY way to solve inner-city crime is to rehabilitate communities.
Zip code 48205, which locals call 4820die, has all the markers of a community in distress: 51% of households are headed by women; 57% of the populations is between 15-34 years, many of whom are in gangs; poverty rate is 31%; the unemployment rate is 23%; many are barely literate; 33% of dwelling units are vacant or boarded up.
Policing will not rehabilitate a community. It might temporarily prevent some crime. It takes a village to change a neighborhood. It is a societal challenge.
We (the country) have spent trillions of dollars nation-building abroad we now need to focus on building our own communities. How do we do that? Some thought in the next post.
Detroit: Crime and the community fabric
We want quick fixes and simple solutions, some have suggested the problems are because of liberal programs tracing back to LBJ and the breakdown in the family structure of blacks which was made worse by perverse incentives in the Great Society programs. These explanations do not hold water in Detroit, and I would suggest that this is a misdiagnosis of the problem of crime in inner-cities, in general.
The issue of higher percent of single parent household, especially households with female heads is real in the black community but that has been true since the 1880s (even before). See the chart below. Yes, neighborhoods with fewer female households have fewer crimes but there are other contributing social and economic factors.
The single biggest factor is that there is a breakdown in the fabric of the black community. In the 30s and 40s (and early 50s) there was a thriving black community in the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods. This community was cohesive there were lawyers, doctors, merchants and ordinary blacks living in close proximity. There were restaurants, shops, theaters and active nightlife, so much so that whites who would otherwise not associate with blacks would come to Paradise Valley for entertainment. This community was torn down and destroyed by urban renewal projects in the late 40s. The blacks who lived and worked there were displaced and dispersed. The sense of community was lost. Since then two generations of blacks have grown up in Detroit without a sense of community. For some gangs have become their community.
The implication for fighting crime is clear, we need to figure out ways of rebuilding communities. This is our societal challenge. So, what makes for a community? Next post.
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